From: TSS()Subject: Stricter cattle feed rules on the way (some time in the next millennium, we hope)Date: September 20, 2005 at 7:17 am PST

Sept. 20, 2005, 12:04AM

Stricter cattle feed rules on the wayLimit on remains will extend to food for all animalsBy LIBBY QUAIDAssociated Press

WASHINGTON - The government will close a gap in the U.S. defense against the spread of mad cow disease by changing feed regulations to mirror a proposal in Canada, FDA commissioner Lester Crawford said Monday.

In remarks to a food policy conference hosted by the Consumer Federation of America, Crawford said the new regulations would be coming soon. But he did not say when.

Canada has proposed regulations banning at-risk tissues — brains, spinal cords and other parts that can carry mad cow disease — from feed for all animals, including chickens, pigs and pets. The new rules have not yet taken effect; current rules are the same as U.S. rules.

Ground-up cattle remains — leftovers from slaughtering operations — were used as protein in cattle feed until 1997, when a mad cow outbreak in Britain prompted the U.S. to ban the feed industry from using cattle remains in cattle feed.

However, the U.S. ban doesn't apply to feed for other animals, creating a potential pathway for the mad cow protein to be fed back to cattle.

For example, it's legal to add cattle protein to chicken feed. Feed that spills from cages mixes with chicken waste on the ground, then is swept up for use in cattle feed. Besides the risk of transmission from uneaten feed, scientists believe chicken waste presents a risk because the bovine spongiform encephalopathy protein will survive the trip through a chicken's gut.

The FDA promised to tighten the rules after the nation's first case of mad cow disease was confirmed in December 2003. FDA said it would ban blood, poultry litter and restaurant plate waste — all potential pathways for the mad cow protein to be fed back to cattle.

FDA scrapped those restrictions last July. At the time, Crawford said an international team of experts assembled by the Agriculture Department wanted even stronger rules.

The first U.S. case of mad cow disease, confirmed in December 2003, was in a Canadian-born cow in Washington state. The second case, a Texas-born cow, tested positive in June.

Crawford did not say whether the new rules would ban cattle blood and restaurant leftovers, also considered potential pathways for BSE, from feed.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl/business/3361038

greetings,

THEY could or would not enforce the original partial and voluntary ruminant feed ban of 8/4/97. IN 2005 it is still not working;

U.S. government inspectors cited meatpackers more than 1,000 times overa 17-month period for violating rules concerning the removal of tissueassociated with mad cow disease, the U.S. Department of Agriculture saidMonday.

THESE ''noncompliance reports could very well have led to much ruminant feed entering the animal feed chain. UNTIL they can fully enforce the original ruminant feed ban of 8/4/97, these additional proposed safeguards will be nothing but more ink on paper. ...

Hunkering down in Bacliff, Texas 77518 and still so very disgusted. ...TSS